Federal and State Authorities in Australia who are keen to push for tougher power management regulation, for plasma and LCD TV’s are watching with interest the decision by the California Energy Commission to introduce mandated regulations for flat panel TV’s.
Federal and State Authorities in Australia who are keen to push for tougher power management regulation, for plasma and LCD TV’s are watching with interest the decision by the California Energy Commission to introduce mandated regulations for flat panel TV’s.
The US decision which will affect all HDTVs sold via retailers or over the Internet will go into effect on January 1, 2011. It will also see Plasma manufacturers struggle to compete with a new generation of LED TV’s that already use less power than plasma models.
If adopted in Australia, hundreds of flat panel TV’s that are on for long periods of time in public places such as retail stores, pubs and clubs would have to be replaced with energy efficient models. At the same time all new models sold at retailers will have to deliver power savings over several current models of up to 40%.
LCDs typically require much less power than plasmas, which have seen Pioneer, Hitachi and Fujitsu drop the technology within the past year.
LCDs are becoming more and more efficient, due to full backlighting by energy-friendly LEDs and features like:
Local dimmingAmbient light sensing
Auto-off settings
Home viewing modes
TV efficiencies will get even better. DisplaySearch forecasts that “large area” LED backlights will surpass conventional fluorescent backlighting in LCDs by 2014.
CEDIA, the Custom Electronic Design & Installation Association said this week that it is outraged over the adoption of TV energy-efficiency mandates passed by the California Energy Commission.
They claim that the measures are “unnecessary and harmful,” adding that it and the anti-regulatory advocacy coalition Californians for Smart Energy had demonstrated for the commission the damaging ramifications the measure would have on the sale and installation of flat-panel displays and the businesses in the residential electronic systems industry.
Utz Baldwin, CEDIA CEO. “From the beginning of the hearings it was evident that the CEC had already determined the outcome before they started and had no intentions of factoring in any other viewpoints.”
TWICE Magazine reported that according to Baldwin, not only does the ruling negatively affect CEDIA members’ ability to do business, it also minimises their ability to provide enhanced energy-efficient solutions to their clients.
“The television is often the first point of entry into the home for CEDIA members,” said Baldwin “By placing a mandate on the energy usage of TVs in the home, this ruling is ultimately preventing small-business owners’ ability to provide enhanced energy-saving technologies that go above and beyond the television.”
CEDIA said it has fought the proposal for more than a year, providing examples to the CEC regarding the continuous efforts of electronic systems contractors who are working without a mandate to meet customers’ desire for energy-efficient homes to become more energy efficient with numerous solutions.
